Interest in archery as a recreational activity has grown dramatically in recent years. It has long been a method used in game hunting. It can be appreciated that in order to optimize the use of an archer's arrows, accuracy is extremely important in felling the game animal. More recently, target shooting has developed into a popular sports competition where again accuracy is at a premium. Accordingly, there has been a continuing need to develop structures that provide consistent support and control of an arrow prior to bowstring release. Such structures must respond easily and efficiently to minute adjustments to improve accuracy.
One feature used by archers to bring about such a result is an arrow rest that is mounted to the bow. The arrow rest aids in consistently and steadily supporting an arrow as it is being prepared for launching. The arrow rest is adapted to establish a repeatable firing position that leads to substantial repeatability in an arrow's flight path.
Examples of arrow rests of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,846 to Carville; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,895, 4,686,956 and 4,398,528, all to Troncoso, Jr. The Carville arrow rest allows for a rest arm to be laterally adjusted relative to the bow by rotating a threaded nut that engages a threaded shaft supporting the rest arm. However, angular positioning of the arrow rest for establishing the flight trajectory of an arrow is accomplished by a relatively complicated manual adjustment. More specifically, a set screw must be loosened, a block rotated the desired amount to effect the angular orientation of the arrow and then the set screw retightened while the block is held in position. Such a procedure is inconvenient and, unless a steady hand is used, often inaccurate.
The Troncoso rests function to prevent arrow roll-off while steadily supporting the arrow in preparation for firing. Further, all of the Troncoso rests also require relatively complicated manual manipulation for angular adjustment of the arrow rest. More particularly, as with the Carville rest, a set screw must be released, a structure carefully manipulated and the set screw retightened while the manipulated structure is held in position in order to complete any angular adjustment.
It can be appreciated that while incremental lateral adjustment relative to the bow as provided by the Carville arrow rest is important in improving accuracy, it only partly accomplishes the desired position control. More particularly, lateral adjustment only allows the archer to compensate for cross winds and not distance. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a mechanism associated with an arrow rest that allows for simple, convenient, positive and precise control for positioning an arrow to bring about the desired flight trajectory upon launching. In this way, an archer may readily compensate for head winds, tail winds and changes in target distances as may often be encountered.